


featherless flight

by orphan_account



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Birds, Fluff, I like birds, M/M, birds are important, kites
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-26
Updated: 2014-05-26
Packaged: 2018-01-26 14:48:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1692233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ori cannot fly.<br/>It doesn't mean he cannot dream about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	featherless flight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Thorinsmut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thorinsmut/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Pretty Bird](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1606355) by [Thorinsmut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thorinsmut/pseuds/Thorinsmut). 



> this was inspired by  
> 1) Thorinsmut's latest fic where Nori is a shapeshifter and turns into a bird. Reading it is probably not required as such to understand this story, but honestly it probably helps and also it's an amazing fic that you should read so, you know. Read it?  
> 2) Asparklethatisblue prompting on tumblr that Ori and Fili could build kites together when I demanded for fluffy ideas for these two

Ori was a dwarf, and dwarves did not fly.

He wished they did.

As far as he could remember, he'd always envied Nori and Viri the wings they sometimes had. Often, he'd ask their mother why he wasn't like them, why he was cursed to stay on the ground. He always cried when she'd explain that things were just the way they were. It wasn't  _fair_ .

But as he grew up, he learned to accept it. He would never have their wings, never be as light and fast as them, and it still made him sad sometimes, but he had other things to compensate. He was stronger than them, and steadier on his feet, and he didn't have to deal with the bird ideas that sometimes overtook them. Nori loved being what he was, but even he sometimes grumbled against the way he couldn't resist anything shiny... or rather, he grumbled against the fact that no one else seemed to get it. Even Viri didn't have  _such_ a problem with it. But sometimes, Ori secretly thought that he understood Nori, at least a little, whenever he saw something beautiful that had to be drawn and kept forever.

He couldn't fly, but maybe there was a bit of a bird in him nonetheless.

 

If there was one thing Ori would never have expected in life, it was to join a quest to reclaim a lost kingdom and slay a dragon.

Which was an _exciting_ idea to say the least. Ori was very happy to have an excuse to go. He would have liked it better if the whole thing hadn't meant Nori's constant exposition to the dwarf he loved and who hated him, because Nori really seemed affected by it, but nothing was perfect.

Beside, it was nice to be making friends. Their little mascot of a hobbit was a rather fun sort, who seemed to enjoy chatting with Ori about old stories, and sometimes they dragged Bofur in their conversation, which was a lot of fun because Bofur knew stories that Dori would never have wanted Ori to hear. It was fun.

Just as fun but a little less comfortable to be around where the young princes. Kili was a nice lad, but he had no sense of personal space, and he often grabbed Ori's shoulders or hand or he would hug him at random, which Ori wasn't fond of. For a while, the young scribe worried that the prince had intentions of some sort, but Kili was like that with everyone except king Thorin maybe... though even he couldn't avoid a hug here and there.

“He doesn't understand that not everyone is as physically as him,” Fili apologized one night when Kili had been particularly affectionate. “I'll ask him to stop, if you want.”

“Will he listen?”

Fili grinned. “Maybe. If he understands why he has to stop. We told him that your brother Nori has bones less strong than ours, and he hasn't tried to hug him since, has he?”

“Nori has a valid excuse. I just don't like it.”

“It _is_ a valid excuse too,” Fili protested. “I'll talk to him. He means to be friendly, but if you don't like it, he won't insist”

Ori shrugged, but thanked him.

He was surprised when Kili indeed stopped touching him. He was even more surprised when the prince didn't also stop talking to him. People usually did when Ori complained about demonstrations of affection... but not Kili. It was nice, and somehow they managed to become friends over the weeks, even though they didn't have much in common, beside youth and a certain tendency to recklessness... and a fascination for Nori's flying.

For a while, Ori was a little jealous when they were in Rivendel and his brother taught the prince how to run and climb and 'fly without wings' as Fili called it, his eyes shining so  _bright_ . Ori had tried to do that too, when he was younger, but he didn't have the right coordination, and all he'd gotten for his trouble was a broken arm at forty, and their mother forbidding him to ever try that again...

But it was easy to forget his envy when Nori was so obviously happy to have people to play with, and when the princes were so happy too.

 

After Rivendel, they didn't have much time to dream of flying, none of them, and then they met with Azog, and Ori decided that flight was maybe overrated.

For weeks after his fall from the tree, he couldn't even bear to look at Nori when he was a bird. Seeing him up in the air reminded him of that night, and made it hard to breathe and think, forcing him to grab Dori's sleeve to steady himself and make sure he really was safe and on the ground.

 

It wasn't until much later, when they were in Erebor, in a kingdom that was theirs again, and freed from the dragon, when the awful war against Azog's armies wasn't something that woke him up every night shouting and crying, that Ori started dreaming of flying again.

He blamed Fili for it. Fili, and maybe Balin. And Oin. And Dori. And Thorin. And all the older dwarves in the mountain who'd lived in Erebor during its days of glory, but it was Fili who was to blame the most, because he was the first one who said the word  _kite_ in Ori's presence, during a discussion about a celebration for lady Dis's birthday.

“Why do you want to have birds of prey released above the party?” Ori had asked, and Fili, who never laughed at him, did this time.

“I meant the flying toys, not the birds,” he explained with a grin, while the eldest members of the company tried not to laugh and the younger ones looked as confused as Ori. “I remember mother saying sometimes that she loved them as a child, I think it would make her happy to see one again, for her first birthday in Erebor since the dragon.”

“I think she would love that,” Thorin agreed, “but I am less sure whether we can indeed have kites ready for her. They were a human toy more than a dwarven one, and I doubt there are any among the people of Esgaroth who still know how to make them.”

Fili looked utterly heartbroken then, as did his brother, but they did not insist, and chatted with the rest of the company to find something else to give to their mother.

But it was too late for Ori. The words  _flying toys_ had awakened something in him, and his curiosity demanded to be satisfied.

 

“Mama, what's a kite?” he asked Ari that night as he helped her make dinner.

She smiled at him, kind but a little disappointed.

“It's a sort of bird, love. Ask Viri, I think she got in trouble with one, once.”

“I know about _these_ kites!” Ori protested. “But today, Fili talked about another sort, toys of some sort. Flying toys?”

Ari put her spoon down, staring at her stew but not looking at it, and she sighed.

“Oh, those... it's been years since I thought about these... They were wonderful, all shapes and sizes and... I remember flying with them sometimes, playing between them and trying to catch my friends'...”

“What were they made of? How did they fly?”

“They were made of wood and fabric,” Ari sighed, stirring the stew slowly. “They flew because they were light as paper... you've seen paper carried by a gust of wind, haven't you? Kites worked like that, but people controlled them with strings. One of my friend had bought one in Dale, shaped like a beautiful blue and yellow bird, and we'd play together sometimes, on the mountain where we wouldn't be spotted... oh, it was just wonderful. I wonder if the Men will ever figure out again how to make them?”

“It'd be nice yes,” Ori agreed, not noticing that he'd peeled the carrot in his hand almost to nothingness. He didn't have a plan as such, but he had the desire for a plan, and that was a start.

 

It was easy enough to collect information on kites. All dwarves who remembered them seemed to have loved them, and they were usually more than happy to talk about them.

It was a good deal more difficult to collect  _useful_ information on kites. Ori was very glad to know how beautiful they were, and how many shapes existed and in what colours they all came, but no one seemed capable of telling him how they actually were  _constructed_ . The best thing he managed to get was a drawing from Balin, of a dragon kite that he remembered being given when he was a child, but of his own admission the drawing probably had little in common with the actual thing.

Still, an inaccurate drawing was better than nothing, and Ori started trying to build something based on it. His first few attempts weren't very pretty. That wasn't a surprise because while Ori was, in all honesty, a rather good artist with a pencil, anything that had relief was a bit of a problem. He wouldn't have minded if they'd flown at least, but even in the best of winds, his kites all crashed to the ground and stayed there.

Maybe he really wasn't made to fly then, not even by proxy.

After the fifth attempt, Ori decided to give up, and to never do more than watch his sibling when they were in the air. He was on his way back inside the mountain, his latest broken attempt in his arms, when he crashed into Fili, definitively ruining the already misshapen kite.

“Wow, careful there!” the prince laughed. “Are you in a hurry? You always seem so busy lately, it's terribly mysterious... Oh, what's that?”

“A failure,” Ori sighed, glaring at what was left of the kite.

“Did it break just now? I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going.”

Ori shook his head. “It was broken before you arrived. You just... put it out of its misery.”

“What is it? A toy of some sort?”

“A kite. One that doesn't fly,” Ori explained bitterly.

He'd done his best really, and that thing looked exactly the way Balin's drawing had... he'd even shown it to Balin who'd said his had probably been like this, but it still hadn't worked and that wasn't fair.

“Do you mind if I have a look?” Fili asked, and when Ori shrugged he took the kite. “Hm... no, I don't expect it'd fly. I don't think the shape's right at all... and you should have started with a flat one, they're easier to make. Unless you'd made flat ones already and this was your first try at a bowed one?”

“No, I... all the others were like that too...”

Fili nodded, and resumed his inspection of the toy.

“It needs to be more balanced,” he explained. “Balance is essential to make them fly, and...”

“How do you know that? No one's made a kite fly in a hundred years!”

The prince laughed. “Here, maybe. But when I was very little, my uncle Frerin made me one or two... and he tried to show me how to make my own. I've forgotten most of it because I was so young, but if you're interested, I could try to remember.”

“Really?”

“The flat ones aren't so difficult,” Fili claimed with a proud smile, the one that Ori knew meant the prince was trying to look more confident than he really was. “Why do you want to make a kite though? Just for fun, or...”

“I want to fly,” Ori confessed.

Fili frowned, looking at the bits of wood and fabric in his hands.

“I don't think it's possible to make a kite strong enough to carry someone,” he said. “Dwarves are too heavy, you'd need a huge kite and a hurricane, and...”

“I know that!” Ori mumbled. “I don't mean I think I'll _really_ ever fly, but... it's as close as I'd get to it, you know?”

It was such a ridiculous idea, now that he was saying it out loud, and certainly Fili was going to make fun of him and to call him silly...

“It must be so hard to be stuck on the ground,” the prince said instead, “when you have siblings who can fly. I've felt envious of Kili for less than that sometimes.”

He smiled then, and Ori believed him. It was hard to imagine how Fili could feel he had anything to envy to anyone, but he was sincere when he said he knew what that felt like.

“So, can I help you?” Fili asked. “I can just give you instructions if you don't want to work with me, though it'd be easier to work together. I'll probably remember more if I'm really doing it, and...”

“I'd love to,” Ori assured him. “If you have time for it? Your duties...”

“My duties can wait. Helping a friend is more important than going to yet another council about... the price of manure and how we're going to get the mushroom caves back in business.”

Ori smiled, and felt his cheek heat up slightly, though he wasn't quite sure why. It might have had something to do with the way Fili was smiling at him.

 

No matter what Fili had said, duties did have priority over friendship, if only because Balin always came to fetch him if he tried to escape with Ori. In they end, they often spent more time trying to escape the king's advisor than actually working on making a kite, but Ori didn't particularly mind. It was fun too, and Fili sometimes still managed to explain how to make wood and fabric fly.

After a few days like this, Ori felt he knew enough to start making a new kite. It wasn't a very fancy one, just a large rectangle of grey silk with stains, supported by a framework of light wood. It was even less pretty than his first ones, and when Fili managed to get a few minutes of freedom, he made some corrections to it, changing things until the were forced to add patches to the fabric. It didn't look impressive at all.

But when Fili released it onto the wind, it  _flew_ , and that was the most beautiful thing Ori had ever seen.

It didn't fly for very long at first, because the wind wasn't so great, and because, as Fili admitted himself, it had been a while since he'd tried to control one. The second flight lasted a little longer, and by the fifth time he lifted the kite, Fili seemed to have fully remembered how everything worked.

“Do you want to try too?” he asked Ori. “Before it gets late and we have to head back inside?”

“I'm fine,” the scribe replied, staring at the toy, wondering what colours he should pick once he was good enough at making kites. Orange would look nice against the blue of the sky... or maybe a bright yellow. Or red, or...

“Don't be ridiculous,” Fili laughed, forcing him to grab the kite's string. “This is yours more than it is mine, and since you're the one who said you wanted to fly... then go and fly!”

And just as he said that, the kite crashed on the ground, much to the prince's consternation. He looked so disappointed that the wind had come to contradict his little speech that he pouted, and Ori found it so sweet and funny that he burst out laughing. Fili's pout only intensified, and then suddenly he was laughing too.

“Fine, let's try this!” the prince said when they had calmed down a little. “Pull on the string... no, a little stronger, and more to the left and... no, not quite like that, or it'll... Ah. It fell.”

“It's not working,” Ori sighed, holding out the string toward Fili. “Taking it back. I like seeing you make it fly, I don't mind.”

“No, it's your kite, you have to fly it! But...” Fili hesitated, and looked away. “Look, when my uncle taught me... I know you don't like being touched, but... just so I can show you the gestures? Just a couple minutes at most. It's easy and I'm sure you'll get it fast.”

There was something scary in the idea of being touched by Fili. There was always something scary about being touched by anybody that wasn't family, but somehow, this wasn't the same fear as usual, though Ori couldn't have said why. But he nodded anyway, and let Fili take over.

It them the entire rest of the afternoon to have Ori learn of to control the kite. He was constantly distracted by the feeling of Fili's chest against his back, Fili's hands on his, Fili's breath against his ear as he gave instructions. Suddenly the kite didn't feel so important, and maybe, just maybe, Ori made a few mistakes on purpose just so that Fili would have to help him a little longer.

He didn't feel too disappointed when Fili let him take care of the kite on his own though. He didn't have time for it, trying to control where the toy was going, feeling the wind fight against his fingers. It was as close to flying as he would ever get, and he felt like he would never get enough of it.

 

He came home very late that night, and he'd almost missed dinner, but he didn't care because his mind was still high off the ground. Most of it was because he was still seeing the kite flying above him, but the memory of Fili's hands on his didn't help either.

“You look like your mysterious secret project is working well enough,” Nori sneered, glancing at Ori's mostly untouched plate. “Will we ever get to see the results?”

“If you're good, and don't borrow anything of mine for an entire week.”

Nori made a pained face, as if he were asking for something impossible... and maybe it would have been, once, but it wasn't even like Nori still lived with them now, so it should be easier for him to resist temptation. Then again, Ori had once found one of Viri's favourite rings at Dwalin's, so maybe it wouldn't be so easy at all.

Finding that ring had really scared him at first, because Dwalin used to be so angry about Nori's stealing when the quest had started... but when he'd noticed the ring he'd just laughed fondly, and he'd taken it to give it back to Viri. That, more than anything Nori had ever told them about his mate, had comforted Ori. It was proof that Dwalin really understood now, just as they all did. Ori had told the others, and he knew they'd all been a lot more accepting toward the warrior now, really letting him into the family at last.

“You are so sneaky about this,” Nori complained.

“I learned from the best,” Ori replied. “And you'll see soon enough what it's all about.”

“Oh, _I_ know what it is!” Viri exclaimed, since it was one of her old dresses that had been sacrificed for the kite. “And I think it's amazing. I so hope I'll get to see it in action!”

“Oh, _you_ will. It's just Nori who might not.”

“Look how mean they are to me!” Nori complained, snuggling against Dwalin. “My own kin, turning against me. What have I ever done to deserve this?”

“Borrowed everything shiny that they own?” Dwalin suggested with a smirk, and Nori gasped in mock horror, claiming that it was a terribly conspiracy and they were all against them and how awful it was, but he was laughing just as much as they were.

 

The next day, Ori went to see Fili to talk about ideas for two new kites. He'd been worried that the prince would find it silly, and was pleasantly surprised when Fili turned out to be just as enthusiastic as he was about it.

Ari, Viri and Dori were told about one half of the secret, whereas Balin, Oin and Gloin and Thorin were told about the other half, and agreed to help. Kili was told about the entire project, and after some hard negotiation with his brother, he agreed to take care of some of Fili's duties until the kite were finished.

It was a lot of fun to work with Fili. He didn't mind that Ori rarely talked when he was focused on doing something, mostly because he was the same. They worked side by side, in silence, and it was comfortable in a way few things were. Then they would take a break and have some tea, chatting as they sipped it. It wasn't new that Fili was easy to talk to, Ori had known that since they quest, but it felt very different without Kili. Ori had always just assumed that both princes were loud and energetic, but on his own, Fili was much quieter, almost shy, and it was strangely sweet. Ori liked the way the prince smiled when he made a joke he knew wasn't funny, the way his eyes lit up when he talked about playing the violin or his favourite knives and how he'd get carried away explaining why this particular shape of blade was so obviously better than all others, until he'd notice he'd been the only one talking for a while and stopped suddenly, smiling another smile, a slightly guilty one.

Ori just liked him, period, and when the kites where finished, he felt a pang of disappointment. He had liked his time with Fili. He didn't want it to be over already.

“We did a good job,” the prince said as they admired their work.

“Yes we did. Thanks to you.”

“You did more than your part too,” Fili laughed, clasping Ori's shoulder for a second, before quickly removing it. “Sorry, I forgot...”

“It's fine,” Ori tried to say, but Fili didn't seem to hear and grabbed one of the kites.

“We've still got to test them you know,” the prince claimed with a smile. “Can't give away a present that doesn't work, right?”

Ori grinned and nodded, but he still felt disappointed.

He didn't  _like_ being touched, but with Fili he didn't  _mind_ so much.

 

The lady Dis cried when, for her birthday, her sons gave her a kite shaped like a beautiful blue bird exactly like the one she had once owned when she was a child. She hugged them tight, and when she learned that Ori had contributed too, she kissed him on both cheeks. She didn't try to hug him though, and Ori suspected that Fili had warned her not to, because she hugged everyone else who gave her a present. It made him happy that the prince would have thought to protect him like that, for some reason.

 

Dwalin was less overwhelmed when he was given his own kite, mostly because he did not understand at first why he was getting one. He'd never been particularly interested in them when he'd been younger, not the way some of the others had.

“It's so you can fly with Nori,” Ori tried to explain.

The warrior frowned for a second. Then he looked again at the kite, and recognised that the shape and colours of it, while not exactly identical, made it look like the same sort of bird that Nori turned into. He smiled then, while Nori stared at his brother in wonder. Flying with a lover was the only thing he could never have had. And this wouldn't be the same, not really, but it would be close enough.

When Nori hugged him, Ori didn't resist, and even hugged back.

 

“I think we did a very good job here,” Fili claimed as they left Dwalin and Nori's house. “You can be proud of yourself.”

Ori shrugged, and blushed.

“You too. You did a lot of the work.”

“Just the technicalities,” Fili countered with a handwave. “The designs and ideas were yours, so I think you deserve the credit. No, no, don't protest. That kite was mother's favourite present, it really was, and I hadn't seen her this happy in... a long time. I don't think she was really too happy about being back in Erebor, but... now I think she might start seeing it as a home once more, and that's thanks to you.”

“You're the one who first spoke about kites.”

“And you're the one who made it come true,” Fili insisted. “I didn't think about making my own kites, but you did, and... I really had a lot of fun working with you. And... well.”

He coughed, and much to Ori's surprise, he was blushing.

“Look, I have a present for you,” Fili explained, looking away. “It's at my apartments, in the palace, and... I'd like to give it to you now, if that's okay? Or another day if you'd rather, but... but we're halfway there anyway, and...”

“Well, let's go then? I'm following you.”

Fili nodded, and lead on. He was strangely silent the whole time they walked, and his hands were shaking when he tried to open his room, so much so that he dropped his key twice. He was also blushing as he let Ori in, which was stranger still.

“Stay here and close your eyes,” Fili ordered when he'd closed the door. “It's a surprise.”

Ori obeyed, even putting his hands on his eyes to make sure he wasn't tempted to look. He heard Fili move things in a corner, cursing when something fell on his foot and clumsily hoping back toward Ori.

“Your hands, please?”

Ori held them before him with a smile, and felt something flat and large but light be put on his palms. He opened his eyes, and gasped. There, right before him, was a beautiful kite, the same shape as Dis's, but red and gold instead of being blue.

“It's amazing,” he gasped. “Did you... did you make it alone?”

“Stole your design,” Fili confessed, “but... yeah. It's... it was so nice, the last couple weeks... it reminded me of when uncle Frerin was still along, and I'd missed flying kites so much, and... and I just like spending time with you, and I wanted to thank you for... for everything. Do you... do you like it?”

Ori nodded eagerly, too breathless for words, admiring the fire bird in his hands and fighting the impulse to run out of the room to make it fly right there and then. He only looked away from it when Fili took a step toward him, smiling shyly.

“Actually, it's not just to thank you,” the prince admitted. “It's also... I guess this is my way of saying that... that I like you a lot and... I was wondering if... would you maybe consider... do you think we could...”

“Are you trying to ask me out?” Ori mumbled.

“I guess I am? It's... it's fine if you don't want to, I like being friends with you too! And even if we court, I know you don't like being touched and I don't mind, we won't even have to hold hands if you don't want, I'm just... I'm happy to be with you and...”

“Okay.”

“Okay? Okay what?”

“Okay, let's court,” Ori stuttered. “I like you too. A lot. And... and I was sad that we wouldn't spend as much time together now, and... and I'm so happy that you like me, and... and I don't like being touched but... but it's different when it's you. I think... I think I like it when it's you.”

To prove it, he took his fire bird in one hand, and held out the other toward Fili who took it, smiling widely. They stayed like that for a moment, and it was comfortable. Fili's fingers were warm against his, and it was something he'd always hated when people touched him, that warmth, but with the prince it was pleasant.

“For our first date,” Fili suddenly said, “how about we run outside right now and see how well your bird flies?”

“M'al, I thought you'd never ask,” Ori laughed. “We'd better hurry, it'll be dark soon.”

Fili nodded, laughing too, and they ran to the door together, hand in hand.


End file.
